100 Prompts
by Dexterra
Summary: Short practice stories using prompts. I'll do 100 chapters, not a linear story but hopefully they'll be interesting enough for people to want to read! Rated for general Fallout shenanigans and some expected language and themes. It may go up to M. (I'll try not to though!) *SPOILERS*
1. Crazy

"This is _crazy_!" Olivia hurried after her brother, whose brains were very obviously still frozen.

She and Nate had just woken up from being frozen for 210 years, at least that's what Codsworth had told them. 210 years. It was impossible, and as she had just yelled to Nate, crazy.

"Nate, could you stop walking for just one second?" Her legs were getting tired. "How the hell can you move so fast right now?" She was starting to run out of breath, but she refused to be left behind. _Someone_ had to talk sense into him.

He whipped around and glared at her impatiently. "They took Shaun! I need to get my son back, what kind of father would I be if I let maniacs abduct my baby?!" He was angry, understandably.

"Look, Nate," She took a second to catch her breath. "I get it, trust me. I want Shaun back too but we can't just rush out into God knows what. If Codsworth is right, and I have my doubts, then we should take some time and find some supplies so we don't _die_."

His face fell, he knew she was right. Of course she was right. Nate could usually keep his head on straight, and if it was anyone but Shaun he would have realized that he needed to calm down sooner.

"You're no use to Shaun if you're dead," Olivia softened her tone and looked to her brother sympathetically. "don't worry Nate, we're going to get your baby back."

The two went back to Sanctuary to loot what they could from Nates neighbors' houses. In the end they couldn't come up with much, but both of them at least had weapons, ammo, and a small amount of food. By the time they were ready to head out again it was beginning to get dark.

"Codsworth suggested we go to Concord, apparently the people there aren't too heavily armed." Nate started to head out of the neighborhood.

"Oh no… Nate, no. We are _not_ going out at night! And not _too_ heavily armed? What the Hell does that mean!" This was crazy. _'Absolutely crazy.'_ She thought as she once again chased after her brother.


	2. Crossroads

"Why does Boston have to be so damned different!" She yelled out in frustration to nobody in particular, earning a chuckle from her older brother. "Oh would you shut up and let me see your stupid map?" Olivia reached over to grab onto Nates arm and study the screen on the Pip Boy again, trying to figure out where the hell they were supposed to be going.

"I think you'd look pretty different too, if you got hit with a nuke." At this moment his sarcastic grin was enough to make her blood boil.

"Okay smart ass, you be navigator." She let out a huff and stepped away from him, throwing an arm in front of herself in a 'lead-the-way' motion. Nate flicked off the screen of his Pip Boy and walked straight ahead confidently.

They had been wandering around for at least two hours trying to find their way to Cambridge police station. "I don't know why I was letting you lead," He laughed again. "you've always been awful with finding your way around."

"Oh give me a break. Have you seen the city recently?" She asked him, rhetorically. "And all the damned maps are out of date, honestly is it really so hard for a portable computer to update its map?"

"Probably about as hard as it is for you to update yours."

"Har. Har." Nate was a pain in her ass, always has been but that's just how siblings are. Olivia was just glad that he was finally lightening up. After he dispatched of a mercenary named Kellogg and found some more clues as to where Shaun would be, and most importantly that he was safe, Nate began to get back to normal. After a few minutes of walking they stopped at a crossroad. "This isn't Cambridge, Nate."

"… I know." He muttered, and then looked down to the Pip Boy. His face betrayed him, showing just how confused he was.

"Hey, Nate," A mischievous grin grew on Olivia's face. "This isn't Cambridge," She waited a moment "are you sure you know where we're going? One crossroad and you're lost?"

"Shut up. Boston looks different, alright?"


	3. Denial

Olivia woke to a bell and she was instantly reminded briefly of her biggest enemy prewar, an alarm clock.

An obviously frantic settlers' voice rang out, yelling 'he's back' over and over. As soon as she heard the first call she was out of bed and running to the teleportation device she and Sturges had finished building just days ago. She pushed her way through the already forming crowd to get to her brother.

"Nate!" She made it to the middle and realized something was wrong. His face was blank, he looked sick, and the thing that worried her most was the fact that he hadn't returned with Shaun.

It took her a minute to successfully drag him away from the worried group of friends and settlers. She brought him into their make shift house and closed the doors. "Nate? Are you okay?" She had a million other questions, did you make it in? What happened? And most importantly, where's Shaun?

He sat in a chair, looking entirely defeated. "Shaun isn't ten..." He was talking so quietly that she had to lean in to hear him. "He's sixty, Olivia. Sixty years old." It broke her heart to see him so close to tears, so broken.

"What are you talking about? You _saw_ Kelloggs' memories. Shaun, right? You're sure that we're talking about Shaun?" She brushed her short hair back with her hands, not at all believing what she was hearing.

"We weren't refrozen for ten years. It was sixty years." He sounded like he was in disbelief himself. "I missed my sons' entire life… He's older than I am."

"That's crazy." She sat across from him and rested her back against the chair.

"You keep saying that, Olivia," He ran a hand through his hair "but this entire world is crazy"

"Maybe that's why I keep saying it."

They sat in silence for a long while before someone knocked on the door. Nate called for whoever it was to come in and Preston entered, closing the door behind him.

He came to see if Nate was okay and soon both Preston and Olivia were being told everything by the broken man in front of them. She couldn't keep herself from crying for her brother, first his wife and now his son.

Olivia couldn't wrap her head around the fact that the world could be so cruel to one person, why couldn't he just have something? Everything he's ever loved has been ripped away from him.

For the first time in many years, Olivia stood up and wrapped her arms around her brother in the most comforting hug she could manage. She refused to die then, for Nates' sake. The world wouldn't rip away the last family he has.


	4. Ninja Turtles

Olivia rested in bed late until the afternoon, usually she avoided being lazy for too long to avoid the guilt of not working but this time she had an excuse. While she was building Nates' teleporter to get him into the Institute she fell from the highest section of the entire structure. The damage wasn't too bad, though she did scrape one of her arms pretty badly.

She wanted to be out and about, helping fortify Sanctuary as much as she could but Preston and Danse both insisted that she take a few days to make sure she didn't go hurt herself more.

It was about time to change the dressings on the cut of her arm so she sat up and started working. She grabbed an old red dress and cut a few strips off the bottom to use as new bandages. She treated her arm accordingly, noting that she was practically healed.

"I see you're taking care of yourself" She jumped at the voice and looked up to see Paladin Danse. She shot him a smile and nodded.

"But of course! Better that I do it myself anyways." She laughed, remembering the _last_ time, when Danse tried to dress her wound for her. He didn't look amused.

"Yes, well I'm glad that you're feeling well." He stood in the doorway awkwardly, his hulking powersuit blocking out any sunlight that tried to creep around him.

"Feel free to come in, have a seat, take a load off." Olivia couldn't help but roll her eyes at how awkward Danse could be, his social skills were slightly lacking.

"Yes, ah.. Alright." He walked in, but stayed standing as if he was expecting to suddenly be part of some combat. Though of course he was, you were never safe in the Commonwealth.

Olivia looked to her side to see an extra strip of red cloth and she grinned at the chance to possibly have Danse lighten up a bit. She quickly cut two rough holes in the middle of the fabric and tied it around her face, wearing it as a mask over her eyes.

"Hey, Danse.. Who am I?" She asked cheerfully as she stood up and shot a wide smile in his direction.

"You're Olivia? What are you wearing on your face?" His eyebrow rose skeptically, looking at her like she was an idiot.

"Oh come on.. Ninja Turtles?"

"Is this something from before the war?"

She felt like an idiot and her smile fell as her cheeks flushed. Of course he didn't know who the damned Ninja Turtles were. She untied the fabric and sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "Alright, school's now in session. I'm teaching you about all of the awesome things you missed out on."

A small smile made its way onto Danses' face as Olivia pouted angrily at him for not understanding a reference to something he could only assume she grew up with. Ever since she talked multiple people, himself included, out of killing him they've spent quite a bit of time together, and some of his favorite times were when she talked about her life before the war.

Her eyes always lit up in a way that was unique to her, she would talk to passionately and with such detail that Danse felt like he was there. "Yes ma'am"

She frowned. "No. Don't call me that. I'm not old enough for that."

"Yes ma'am." A grin grew on his face as she glared at him before she started laughing.

Olivia noticed how things had changed with Danse. He would smile more, he opened up from time to time, and he was one of her few true friends. They were close, and she was one of the only people he came to. He had visited her every day since she fell and he insisted that he wounds be tended to and that she stay in bed even though she felt 100 percent.

"So! The Ninja Turtles…" Danse listened intently to her lecture on the prewar cartoon as Olivia went on passionately about something that was only important to her, waving around the makeshift, red, fabric mask.


	5. Paper Airplane

The heat wave that was rolling over the Commonwealth was _'crazy_ ' as Olivia had put it. Nobody wanted to do any work and most of the days were spent sitting in the shade and drinking what purified water they had leftover.

Even Danse had stepped out of his powersuit, which surprised many of the settlers considering many of them had never seen him out of it before.

He was sitting on the porch of the house Olivia had built with Nate, they had built an overhang and had several patio chairs that were available to sit on. She was sitting on his right, neither of them talking. The silence was comfortable and it was one of the only times when the Commonwealth was _truly_ quiet.

He looked over to her, her short brown hair was as tied up as she could get it, and she had a thin layer of sweat sitting on her forehead. She was folding an old newspaper into a strange shape he hadn't seen before.

After a few moments she smiled triumphantly and raised the folded paper above her head before turning to him. "You know what this is?"

He smiled. "Should I?"

"Of course you should." She rolled her eyes, smiling as she threw her paper airplane at his head. The plane glided quite gracefully towards his face before bumping into his forehead and landing on the wooden floor beneath them. She started laughing as he raised an eyebrow, first looking down at the plane and then up to her.

He leaned over to pick it up and held it the same way she had. "What is it?"

"It's a paper airplane, silly." She took a sip of water and then offered the rest to him.

"I don't need water, remember?" He turned to look away from her, still holding the plane.

"Doesn't it still feel nice to drink, though?"

"Yes. But it would be a waste of your resources."

Olivia frowned. "No, not really. We have a bunch of water. If you want to drink, then drink." She stared at him as he seemed to refuse to look at her. "I told you before; you're just as human now as before anybody knew. Drink if you want to drink and eat if you want to eat."

He laughed bitterly inside of his head. She was too kind. He was a Synth, he should be dead and if it wasn't for her, he would be. Of course he was thankful that she cared enough to save him, but because of that he refused to make things more difficult for her. She was special; she was the only person he could truly be himself with.

"Danse? I don't care if you're a Synth or not. Okay?" She seemed to read his mind as she smiled at him.

"You've made that clear." He smiled despite himself.

"Then take care of yourself and drink some water, otherwise I'll worry about you." She tried handing the water to him again and this time he took it, reluctantly.

He drank a small sip and he had to admit, it did feel nice. He passed the bottle back to her, and she continued looking at him expectantly until he realized he was still holding her paper plane.

He held it in his fingers the same way she had before he threw it towards her. It was much less graceful this time as it did a small loop and landed on its back at his feet.

Olivia laughed genuinely. "Looks like I need to teach you how to throw an airplane!" She smiled at him before turning to look at the rest of the settlement and finishing off her water.


	6. Abandoned

She still couldn't believe that Nate left her out in the middle of the city. They had an argument about Shaun and the institute and he just _left._ He teleported away, leaving Olivia alone without a map.

It was what they did when they were younger; if they were fighting one of them would just leave to stop the fight. But this – _this_ – was very different. They were grown adults and the world wasn't the same as it used to be.

"Nate you're so damn childish!" She yelled out, crossing her arms and glaring at the spot where her brother stood just seconds ago. The ground was slightly scorched.

She decided to just go back to Sanctuary on her own, or Diamond city. Maybe even Goodneighbor. Whichever place she found first, and considering she had no idea where she was she didn't even know where to start.

Olivia wandered around for the better part of two hours until she found a door leading into a parking garage with arrows pointing to it. Usually she would have ignored the arrows but it was almost night time and she wanted to find some shelter.

She pulled out her 10mm and slowly opened the door. It was pitch black inside so she opened her bag and grabbed an old, barely working flashlight. As far as she could tell, she was alone.

The wall in front of her had another arrow, this one was pointing to the left. She followed it to a small hallway with an opening to the right. There were a few radroaches that were easy enough to deal with, then she kept walking straight.

"Holy shit." She breathed out. As soon as she turned the corner there were mannequins, they were placed around the room randomly and there was a very dim light behind them.

"You know what, fuck this shit. I'm out." She walked back towards the door that she entered through and peeked outside. It had gotten dark, fast. Olivia ended up making the decision to wait the night out in the entrance of the parking garage, but she refused to explore it any further.

She had never been a horror movie type of person, and this was just some real life Saw crap that she wanted nothing to do with.

Eventually the door opened and she raised her pistol, ready to shoot the face off of anybody who stepped through the door. "Geez, I didn't think you would still be mad at me."

"Why _wouldn't_ I be mad at you!" She glared at Nate as he stood in the doorway with his hands up, light pouring into the small space she had spent the night. "How did you even find me?"

"You weren't that far away from where we were before," He turned and pointed across the road. "That's the hospital there. I was just wondering what the arrows were about, didn't realize you were trying to make yourself a target."

" _Not_ what happened, but okay," She put her gun away and stepped outside. "I walked for two hours, how the hell was I this close to where you decided to abandon me?"

Nate only shrugged as he began to walk away, forcing Olivia to hurry and follow him so that she didn't get left behind. Again.


	7. Rain the Size of Walnuts

"What is _with_ the weather here! Nathan! Why did we have to participate in fucking _nuclear_ war?!" She shouted – or at least tried – over the rain.

Olivia and Nate were taking shelter in an old, broken down bus. The giant raindrops hammered down on the metal roof and made a constant, deafening banging sound.

"Hey, don't blame me. I didn't personally start a war against the damned Chinese," His face was sour as he stared outside; looking for somewhere else they could hide out. "and even then it isn't like we knew that all this would happen! Who would have thought _'Hey, you know, nuclear war will cause fucking softball sized raindrops that will try to kill you!'_ "

"They're more like… Walnut sized raindrops."

"You're an idiot." They both laughed.

"I could _really_ go for some walnuts right about now, though." She sighed dreamily, leaning against the wall of the bus.

"I could _really_ go for anything that isn't a can of dog food." Nate leaned back beside her, looking kind of sad.

"I got a can of Cram."

"Yeah, I'll pass on that too," His nose crinkled up. "after what MacCready told us, no thank you."

Olivia laughed hard enough to cause some tears to roll out from her eyes. "Oh come _on_! That was hilarious! Did you see the doctors face?" She held her stomach and laughed more at the mere memory.

"It's disgusting if you ask me." Nate chuckled and shook his head. Olivia didn't laugh much anymore, she was usually pretty stressed out and he had to admit that it was nice seeing his sister loosen up.


	8. Present

"It's a beaut'," Nate commented, nodding his head as he and Olivia both stood back from the power armor they were studying, arms crossed. "What are you doing with it?"

The armor that they were staring at was a practically brand new suit of X-01 power armor. Olivia had been working on it for months now, before the war she used to build and repair the suits, she always had a love for machines and technology. At the time, she was one of the few that could come up with feasible designs for enhancements.

This particular suit was entirely decked out in all sorts of useful features including a jetpack, a filter that turned rads into a gas to encourage faster healing – though she had to admit that Sturges helped out a ton for that one, it had a head lamp, and some pretty amazing temperature control. The suit was Olivia's pride and joy, it was her baby.

She mulled over his question before finally answering. "I'm going to give it to Danse."

"Really?" Nates eyebrows shot up. He couldn't help but be surprised, she wasn't usually one to give gifts and _this_ was a huge gift.

"Yeah, I mean it isn't like I'll ever use it." Olivia shrugged, she had always been too scared to step foot into one of the suits. Her old co-workers always laughed at about it. ' _If you make the damned things and still won't even use them, why would anyone else.'_

If she had kept it then it would just sit there and rust – which was the absolute last thing she wanted to happen to it- but she also felt bad for Danse. Ever since he left the Brotherhood he'd been using a suit that was just a bunch of pieces of badly damaged and rusted out raider armor, the poor guy was practically holding his suit together with duct tape. She was impressed that he continued to manage to be intimidating while wearing the piece of junk.

"I guess if you want it to be used, Danse is the best person to give it to." Nate chuckled.

"Well," She smiled, still admiring her armor-child. "he practically lives in the damn things. I trust he'll take good enough care of it."

"And if it breaks?"

"I'll kill him." She shrugged. She didn't mean it of course, but if something broke she would most definitely have some very stern words for him. She was confident she'd be able to fix any part of it though, machines were what she was good at after all.

Later that night nearly everyone was sitting around the cooking station, boiling some cobs of corn and roasting a large piece of brahmin meat. Dinner was nearly ready and Olivia was starving, her stomach made that clear to anybody who was sitting near her.

Sturges laughed. "Hey, Preston!" He called out, Preston looked over from his seat. Preston was the one who was in charge of cooking the meat. "You might want to hurry it up or Oli here might just starve to death."

She reached over and slapped his arm, shooting him a playful glare. "Gee, Sturges, thank you."

"Any time Oli." He grinned before standing up and walking over to grab some food. Olivia followed suit and while she was waiting in line she noticed that Danse was nowhere to be seen.

"Two plates please, Preston." She watched as Preston served two plates of food and handed them to her.

"Didn't know you were _that_ hungry." He joked as she walked away, a few people laughed.

Then, she embarked on her quest to find the man who never seemed to want to take care of himself. She walked halfway around Sanctuary before finding him in Rosa's old house.

Danse was sitting on a chair, hunched over his barely-there power armor. He was working on duct taping it all together and his hands had rust and cuts all over them. The sight made Olivia feel a small amount of pity for him.

He tried so hard to keep the image he had before, but his self-esteem was damaged. He thought so little of himself, and now he had to use a piece of crap. His armor was a huge part of him – literally and figuratively – and the armor he was being forced to use probably reflected the way he thinks about himself.

"Hey," She walked into the house and sat across from him, laying the plates of food on the table that sat between their chairs. "Aren't you hungry?"

He looked up from what he was doing. "Not really." He didn't look happy. Olivias eyes went back down to his hands and she noticed they were smeared with more blood than she originally thought.

She stood up and walked over to him, then she took the piece of scrap metal that used to be the right arm of a power armor out of his hands and put it on the table. "Danse, I have a gift for you, but you have to promise to take care of yourself before I'll let you have it." He raised an eyebrow as she grabbed his wrists.

"But first, let me clean up those cuts."

"Do not worry about them, they aren't worth your time." He stood up and Olivia sighed. She walked to the kitchen of the house and pulled a bottle of purified water out of the cupboard along with a semi-clean cloth.

She walked back to him and soaked the cloth in water then gently cleaned the rust and blood off of his hands. His wounds weren't bad enough to bother using a stimpack, but they did probably sting quite a bit. It didn't take her long to clean his hands off, and they both stood in silence until she was finished.

"Now eat and I'll get you that gift, okay?"

".. Alright." He sat at the table again and she took her seat back. They both ate, not talking much. They made a few comments about the weather, how well the crops are coming in, and other generic small talk topics.

Once they finished, Olivia lead Danse to her power armor stand. He had of course seen the armor before, but he never gave it a second thought. She started by explaining all the features it had in it, he seemed interested as he inspected the suit.

"It is a very nice suit," He nodded. "I'm sure Proctor Ingram would love to talk to you about it." He had a sad smile on his face. "You've done a good job."

Olivia frowned at his mention of the Brotherhood, but shot him a small smile. "I'm glad you like it," She paused for a second and shuffled her feet. "I mean, it's yours so it would really suck if you _didn't_ like it."

His eyes shot up to meet hers and she shrugged. "I can't-"

"You can and you will," Her arms crossed. "There's no way I'm letting you tear your hands apart trying to repair that piece of junk you've been using.. Besides, this one suits you much better," She paused and neither of them spoke for a minute, Danse was looking between her and the suit. "I'll never use it anyways."

"I don't know what to say." He said, his voice holding a small amount of emotion as he walked over to where she was standing, the two of them looking at the suit before he turned to her.

He reached over and placed a hand on the back of her neck gently, he looked her in the eye and smiled. "Thank you, Olivia."

All she could do was smile back at him, enjoying the moment.

* * *

A/N:

Thank you everyone who's read this! I'd like to ask anyone who has any criticism or comments, suggestions to make these better or any thoughts at all to leave a review or message me. I'd appreciate it greatly! These are just for practice as I haven't written in a long time and I'm trying to improve :)

I tried to write a longer one, I think this may be my favourite.


	9. An Old Relationship

Nora sat on the counter in her kitchen, watching some popcorn pop and half-listening to the tv, it was playing some sort of kids show that she wasn't entirely interested in. She looked at the clock and wondered why Olivia wasn't home yet, it was almost midnight for heaven's sake.

"If she comes home drunk or high again, I swear." Nora crossed her arms and glared at the microwave that was taking entirely too long. As the last few seconds rolled around, Nora counted along. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, _five, four, three, two…_ "

As soon as she said one, Olivia burst through the door. "Sorry I'm so late!" She was breathing heavily and had a few beads of sweat dripping down her face. She looked up to see a startled looking Nora holding a freshly popped bag of popcorn.

"Hey."

Olivia laughed, closing the door behind her and kicking off her shoes. "Hi."

"Don't worry about being late," Nora walked over to the couch and sat down. "I just assumed the elevator stopped working and you were too lazy to walk up the stairs." She shrugged, popping at least four pieces of the popcorn into her mouth.

Olivia was facing away from Nora, putting her jacket away. "Nora, we live on the second floor," She turned around and saw Nora staring at her, a teasing grin on her face. "Oh har har, I'm not _that_ lazy."

She walked over to the couch and jumped over the back of it to sit beside Nora. "So lazy you can't even walk around the couch to sit down, tsk tsk." Olivia rolled her eyes and shoved her hand into the popcorn to grab as much as she could.

"Anything interesting happen today?" Olivia tried to shove her hand into the popcorn again, but Nora moved the bowl to her other side in an attempt to save the food from Olivia's ravenous hunger.

"Well," Nora popped a few more pieces into her mouth. "Nate called-"

"Of course he did. Forget I asked." Olivia crossed her arms and pouted.

"He wants to talk to you."

"Of _course_ he does."

Nora frowned. "He isn't all that bad, I know you two have never really gotten along but it's been a year since the two of you have talked. He's changed a lot, Olive."

"Ew. Don't call me that. Olives are gross." Olivia crinkled up her nose and grabbed the remote, absentmindedly flipping through channels. Nora rolled her eyes at her friend.

"The point is, I think you should talk to your brother more. As much as you guys fight I can tell you care about each other." She could remember back to when the three of them were younger, Nora was always the mediator between Nate and Olivia. She tried to keep the two of them civil and would often talk one or the other out of pulling some sort of prank that would absolutely infuriate the other one.

"Hey, Nors," Olivia smiled. "Remember when we would joke about you and Nate getting married? Because we wanted to be sisters?"

"Of course," Nora laughed, fondly remembering the times when Olivia and herself would plan her wedding to Nate. "I'm sure most best friends planned to force their brothers to marry their friend so they could become sisters."

"You have no idea, I once hid a rope in my closet for a while so that if I had to I could tie Nate up to make sure he couldn't leave you at the alter!" Olivia giggled, thinking about the shenanigans she always used to be a part of.

"You did _not_!" Nora laughed heartily. "I can't say I'm surprised though."

They both quieted down and Olivia stared at her phone thoughtfully. "I might call him eventually."

"That's all I wanted to hear." Nora shot Olivia a sweet smile and moved the popcorn back in between the two.


	10. Blood

Preston, Nate, and Olivia all gathered around a list of their settlements, trying to decide which settlement needed what; supplies, defense, food and water.

"We need more shipments of food going to the drive-in, since the population there has been going up and they don't have much space to grow their own." Olivia noted, writing food in the section for Starlight Drive-In.

"Don't they have a bunch of brahmin?" Nate raised an eyebrow.

"They send brahmin off to other settlements as a trade for water and vegetables." Preston explained. Though Nate was the General, Olivia and Preston kept tabs on the settlements more religiously. Nate was usually off doing something somewhere, which left Preston in charge.

"Okay, what about Jamaica Plains?" Olivia put her finger beside the name and looked to Nate; he was the last one there so he would know better than the other two.

"I'm going to head over there to help them build up their defenses, soon. Otherwise for a new settlement, they're doing pretty well for themselves." As Nate was talking she added defense under Jamaica Plains.

"While you're down there, you should check in with Ronnie at the Castle," Preston added. "she was saying they were having a few issues restoring the walls, they could use your help."

"Alright, I'll make sure I drop by."

Olivia grinned cheekily. "Old lady probably misses you, Nate."

"More than she would miss you." They both laughed. Olivia and Ronnie didn't get along the greatest, and Nate could still remember the look on Ronnie's face when Olivia told her that whatever dick measuring contest Ronnie was trying to have, that she wouldn't win.

The group was interrupted by a loud crashing sound that shook the ground. "What.. the Hell?" Olivia's eyes widened as Nate and Preston ran outside. She immediately followed them to see that the teleporter to the Institute had crashed down into the river.

"Sturges!" Olivia ran over to her fellow engineer. "What-"

"Danse is under that, he was trying to hold it up." Sturges interrupted her and ran over to where the Paladin was being crushed by the large, heavy metal beams.

"Oh God," Olivia quickly followed Sturges. "Nate! Go get your power armor on, _now_!" As soon as she said it Nate was off. The group of people who had come to see what the noise was gathered around Olivia, who was trying to lift the structure off of Danse as much as she could.

A few – but not many – people joined in. "Danse, Danse can you hear me?" She breathed out, putting all of her effort into lifting the structure, trying to at least give Danse a bit of relief. The thing hardly moved.

His eyelids fluttered and his breath was coming raggedly. Olivia watched as some blood spilled out of his mouth and he tried to cough. " _Nathan_!"

"I'm here." As soon as she called him, Nate showed up beside her and helped lift the beams off of Danse. Sturges and Preston immediately grabbed Danse and pulled him out from under it.

Olivia pressed the emergency release button on Danse's power armor, which had been damaged beyond repair. "Nate, bring him to our house."

She stood and charged ahead of Nate, who she decided had most likely also taken some Buffout, to the small house the two of them had built. She pushed the door open and moved all the furniture out of the way to clear a path to the couch. She was panicking, she had no idea what to do and she was starting to feel dizzy.

Within the next few minutes Danse was on their couch and his shirt was off. And there was blood. There was _so much_ blood. Olivia kneeled at the side of the couch, pushing a rag onto the biggest wound. A piece of his power armor had broken off and the jagged metal stabbed into his side.

Nate gathered as much first aid material as he could. "You can take care of him, right?"

" _What_?" Her eyes widened at the suggestion that she had any medical knowledge.

"Since he's a Synth, you know, a machine. And you're an engineer." Nate was as frantic as his sister.

"You're joking!" She teared up, realizing they didn't have anybody qualified to help Danse. "Nate, he isn't _just_ a machine! He's part human, too! Do you not see all the fucking blood!"

Her vision blurred over with tears as she began to panic more and more. "Why would they even give Synths blood," Nate cursed under his breath and put his hands over Olivia's, applying pressure to the wound. "Olivia, go outside. Take a breath and calm down."

"I.. I can't just leave him, Nate." She started sniffling.

"You're freaking out, go outside and calm down. You're no help in here if you're a blubbering mess." He gently pushed her shoulder with his and she dejectedly stood up and walked towards the door.

There were a few people gathered outside, with Preston keeping them off the porch and demanding that they give Danse space. As soon as Olivia walked out and looked at them, they scurried off and went to help clear the mess that the fallen teleporter had caused.

"Is he alright?" Preston asked before turning.

"I don't know." Olivia sniffled; her hands and shirt were covered in blood. "Nate told me to come outside." She breathed the fresh air and felt a bit of her dizziness clear.

Preston put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "I'll go help him. You stay here and calm down." He offered her a smile and headed straight into her house.

She sat on one of the chairs, slouching over and not really thinking about anything. She hadn't noticed how much she was shaking until she sat down, and she spent the next twenty minutes just trying to get her bloody hands to stay still.

Nate walked outside with an armful of bloody rags. "He's all patched up, if you're ready then Preston could really use some help in there." And he walked away.

She stood and rushed into the house. Danse was out cold, hopefully asleep, and Preston was cleaning the blood off from his abdomen. "Is he okay?"

"For now. He'll be just fine, Oli. Don't worry. He just needs some TLC." Preston smiled at her as she took another deep breath to calm down and then took a seat on the floor next to him.

"I can do this, if you want to help Nate clean up." She offered, grabbing another clean rag and dipping it in purified water.

"Alright, just call out if either of you need anything." Preston stood, grabbed some dirty rags and empty bottles of water, and left.

Olivia gently cleaned around his wounds and noticed bruises that were already forming on his arms and chest. Definitely some broken bones.

"What have I been telling you about taking care of yourself?" She rung the cloth out and dipped it in more water. "I thought you were smarter than that, how did you think you could lift that entire damn tower?

"You big dummy." She whispered, starting to tear up again. His breathing was a little bit shaky; she assumed it was because of pain.

Olivia stayed with Danse every day, making sure there was always food and water available for him. She injected him with one Stimpack per day and after two days of being out he would wake up for short periods at a time.

She had to explain to him what happened, and when she teared up and got mad at him for being so stupid he gave her a small smile and fell asleep again.

By the fifth day he woke up in the morning and stayed awake all day. They moved him to a bed, and even though he insisted he was okay Olivia made him stay in bed for another few days.

She stayed with him the entire time he was on bed rest, they would play word games from before the war and she talked to him about what her life was like – and as much as he wanted to be out of bed and doing other things, he listened to her with his full attention.

"Why did you try to hold it up?" She asked him on the sixth day. It was the middle of the night and they were both falling asleep. They had been sharing the bed, sleeping shoulder to shoulder It wasn't the most comfortable arrangement but it's what made Olivia feel the most secure. If he needed anything she was literally right there.

"I didn't want it to break, it's an important device to get in and out of the Institute if need be." Though he wasn't being completely honest. He saw her build the machine, and he knew just how hard she had worked on it. It meant a lot to her and he wanted to save it for her.

Olivia sighed and looked over to him, sadly. "It wasn't worth risking your life for."

 _It was_ , was the first thing he thought, but when he looked over and saw how sad she looked he couldn't bring himself to say it. Instead, he rolled over and hugged her close to him.

"D.. Danse," Her eyes widened. "You're going to hurt yourself!"

"Thank you for worrying about me, and taking care of me," He smiled at her reaction. "I'm sorry I worried you."

And with that he fell asleep, hugging Olivia like a teddy bear. After a minute or two she calmed down, smiled, and got comfortable, enjoying his warmth. Though, if anyone asked she would tell them she didn't move because she didn't want to accidently hurt him. But that would have been one of the biggest lies she ever told.

A/N:

Thank you **_Pinoy Gamer_** for the review! I tried to work with your request, and I hope it turned out well!


	11. Zombies

MacCready and Olivia were crouching behind an old, rusted out car. It was the middle of the day and they were about a block away from Mad-Tek Research. "Alright," She whispered. "What did you say was in there?"

"Ferals; a lot of them." He was peaking over the hood of the car, checking to make sure the coast was clear. As far as he could tell, it was. But that didn't mean much when it came to ghouls.

"Right. Ferals." She paused for a second before frowning and looking over to him. "What are those?"

He frowned and gave her a look telling her exactly how dumb he thought she was, it was a look she was _very_ used to. "What, have you been living under a rock?"

"Kinda." She shrugged. He sighed and pinched his nose, remembering what she told him about her past. Olivia noticed he was pretty stressed out, though she could only assume it had to do with the reason they were going to Med-Tek

"They're ghouls whose brains got fried by the rads." He pointed to his head and left it at that, as if it was enough of an explanation.

"Ghouls?" She got the look again.

"Hancock and Daisy."

"Oh, right! Melty faces and black eyes." She grinned, slightly proud of herself for remembering. He had to laugh at this.

"Exactly, except these ones won't hesitate to kill you, and they're fu- really fast." He stuttered in the middle of his sentence, trying not to curse.

"I don't think Hancock would hesitate to kill me." She nodded thoughtfully. "So the plan is kill them before they kill us?"

"Isn't that always the plan?" He chuckled as Olivia shrugged carelessly.

"It's worked for us so far," She double checked her trusty pistol, ensuring she had a full clip and getting ready to fire. "Ready?"

"Safety off." He grinned. They nodded to each other as they both stood and made their way quietly over to the Med-Tek building.

Not even two minutes later they heard eerie groans and moans accompanied by shuffling footsteps. He silently signaled for her to stop and be quiet, and before she could comply a hoard of feral ghouls ran around the corner straight for them.

MacCready immediately started firing as he moved away from them as quickly as he could, dodging as they hurled their bodies at him. They were charging at the duo and Olivia was caught very much off guard.

"The fuck are those?" She shouted, frantically firing at the things she could only describe as zombies. Gross, irradiated, zombies.

"Ferals!" He yelled back to her, more and more ghouls running to join in the fight for food. Their bodies were bloated, and their skin a strange green colour. What clothes they had left – and most of them didn't even have clothes – were torn and barely clinging onto the disgusting bodies of the former humans.

Olivia looked for a place to hide and reload her pistol without having her face gnawed off, but before she realized it she was being pinned to the ground.

A feral had jumped on her and sent them both tumbling, she was startled for a moment and came back to her senses as she smelt a disgusting, rotting smell that came from the ferals mouth. She slammed her hand into its forehead, and watched as its chomping teeth inched closer and closer to her face. Some of its spit dripped down in the process and almost hit her eye.

"Creads!" She called out for help as she kicked at the creature that was on top of her while she used both of her hands to keep its head away from hers. Her pistol sat a good two feet away from her head and she ignored any thoughts telling her to grab it.

The ghoul was sent toppling off of her as MacCready kicked it firmly in the torso then shot its face, finishing off the zombie-like creature. "Are you sure you're up for this?" He looked down at her completely shocked face as she stared at the feral.

He had managed to take out almost every single ghoul by himself and Olivia suddenly felt very useless. "You didn't tell me that we were fighting fucking… fucking… _zombies_!" She shouted, glaring up at him.

"Zombies?" He raised an eyebrow as she stood up and retrieved her pistol, reloading it in the process. She kept a firm grip on it this time.

"What, have you been living under a rock?" She wiped the spit off of her face with her sleeve and turned to him with her arms crossed, glaring.

"Kinda." He grinned back at her, causing her to shake her head and smile.

"Yeah, I'm up for this. Let's go get that cure and save your son."

* * *

A/N:

Thank you to those of you who are still reading! As the description says, this is all for practice and as such I sincerely appreciate any and all critique and suggestions for better writing. The next chapter should be up soon(ish)!


	12. How it Should Have Ended

The cool breeze of the morning brushing across her body was what woke Olivia up that morning. She lazily opened her eyes and let out a small yawn.

Another breeze drifted through the window, causing the curtains to flutter about. She stood up and looked to her young nephew – Shaun – then decided to close the window, hoping he wouldn't catch a cold.

She was staying at her brothers' house for a few days, as work had dragged her into the area. It was her first time back since his wedding to her childhood best friend, Nora.

Since the house was just big enough to fit the small family of three, plus the trusty Mr. Handy named Codsworth, she had the choice to sleep on Shauns floor or the couch – she chose the floor.

Surprisingly she took more than a liking to little Shaun, she was never one to get along with children but to her, her nephew was a gem. She fell in love with him the moment she saw him.

"Good morning, buddy." She walked over to his crib, smiling down at the already awake and very content child. She picked up the infant carefully and walked into the kitchen and living room area where Nate and Nora were sitting, eating their breakfast.

"Good morning Miss Olivia!" Codsworth noticed her first, his eyes dilating for a moment and then returning to morning.

"Oh, you're up." Nora smiled to her friend over her mug of hot coffee.

"Good morning all." Olivia greeted, slightly bouncing Shaun. Nate nodded to her, his mouth full of Sugar Bombs.

"Here, I'll take Shaun and you can go get ready." Nora put her coffee down, stood up, and reached for her baby boy. Olivia let out a quiet laugh and handed Shaun over.

"Alright, be back in ten."

"I'll make your breakfast, Miss Olivia!" Codsworth got to work, getting a plate of eggs and bacon ready for her. He had made sure to ask her the day she got here what her favorite breakfast was.

"Thanks Codsworth!" She called over her shoulder, walking back into Shauns room to raid her bag of clothes.

Once she was done getting dressed, she briefly looked over at Shauns crib. She smiled at the mobile that she and Nate had fixed yesterday.

Olivia left the boys room and casually walked over to the washroom. She took time to brush her short hair and decided she would wait to brush her teeth until she was finished eating.

When she got back to the dining area, Nora was sitting down with Shaun, feeding him. Olivia looked towards the front door and saw Nate talking to a man in a beige hat and coat.

She sat down across from Nora and raised an eyebrow, wondering who Nate was talking to.

"Some salesperson from Vault-Tec, he's been trying to get ahold of Nate for the past few days." Nora didn't even have to ask what Olivia was thinking.

"You got into a vault?" Olivia laughed, slightly bitter but still happy for her family. "That's lucky."

"You haven't?" Noras' eyebrows knit together, confused. Nate had been in the military for nearly ten years now, Olivia for half that amount of time. Nora assumed that with five years under her belt, Olivia would have gotten chosen for one.

"Well, you know. Nate's a soldier and I'm just an engineer. They have all the suits of power armor they'll need and I'm not _really_ trained for combat." She shrugged, casually taking a bite of her eggs.

"I'm sorry." Olivia could tell that her best friend was truly upset.

"Don't be, I'll be alright. We have a small bunker back where I've been working. Just in case." She shrugged again.

Nate sat back down at the head of the table and continued drinking his coffee. "You haven't gotten into a vault?" His voice had a tone of almost disbelief. Olivia was practically the best in her department.

"Nah, but who needs vaults anyways. I mean, I've always dreamed of having an arm grow out of my stomach." Olivia grinned while finishing off her breakfast.

Nora was frowning deeply, unhappy with the current conversation.

"Sir! Mum! You might want to hear this!" Codsworth called out, turning up the television and causing a distraction. Though, not a very happy distraction. The three of them stood from the table and walked into the living room to surround the television.

"Oh, my…" Nora covered her mouth with one hand, clutching Shaun closer to her with the other. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head and her breath got caught in her throat.

Nate came up behind her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and squeezing reassuringly. Nora leaned on Nate, almost not even believing what she was hearing.

They were getting bombed. It was time to go.

And suddenly Olivias heart dropped to her feet. She had nowhere to go. "We have to get to the vault." Nate started pushing Nora towards the door.

"Wait! Olivia, come with us! They'll let you in, I know they will." Nora was very visibly shaken, and as she and Olivia locked eyes they both knew that what she just said was a lie. Nora started tearing up and Nate grabbed both of her shoulders.

"Nora, get Shaun to the vault. We have to leave _now._ " And he turned her and sent her on her way.

"Nate-" She tried to argue but knew he was right, she looked down at her baby and decided that she couldn't risk staying any longer. She trusted her husband to figure something out, and ran for the vault.

Nate turned to his younger sister. Olivia was standing in the middle of his living room, she felt numb, she knew what this meant. He walked over to her silently, neither of them knowing what to say, and he hugged her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck for a brief second before pushing him away. "Nate, go," She smiled, snapping out of her numbness for a second. "I'll be okay."

They both knew she was lying, but he nodded anyways. "Olivia, I-"

"It's fine." She shrugged.

"I love you, sis." He ruffled her hair and then turned and booked it to the safety of the vault.

"Love you to…" She paused to wipe a tear off of her cheek. "Bro."

Olivia wandered calmly outside, no destination in mind as chaos erupted around her. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to be. She found herself sitting by a tall tree in the middle of the neighborhood and she sat down.

She crossed her legs, made herself comfortable and waited.

She was waiting for the last sound, the last sight, and the last feeling she will ever know. The explosion. The flash of light. And the slight burn.

And then… nothing.

* * *

A/N:

Just a reminder: This is not what really happened. The prompt was How it Should Have Ended. I would really like to do a How it Really Happened, but for certain reasons I don't think I will. Anyways! Hoped anyone reading this enjoyed (:


	13. If I Had a Superpower

She couldn't believe that they had gotten themselves stuck in an abandoned subway station. Why couldn't they have just been a bit faster? They _would_ have been able to make it to Goodneighbor. If only Nate actually listened to her for once.

The night was surprisingly dark, and they all agreed that it would be best to hide out somewhere until morning. Olivia, Nate, and MacCready all found themselves huddling in an old subway car.

"You should have listened to me." She crossed her arms, pouting.

"Shut up."

"Oh come on Nate, you _know_ you should have listened to me!" She glared at her brother.

"Could you two get along and _not_ get a horde of ferals after us?" MacCready asked sarcastically, lying down on a bench with his hat pulled over his face in a way that reminded Olivia of the hobo's that used to take the subway in the middle of the night.

"Fine, fine." She grinned, rolling her eyes and sitting back to let herself relax a bit. Oddly enough, they hadn't actually found any ferals roaming the tunnels in the area.

Nate was chosen by the younger two to be the first to keep watch, so he sat closest to the nearest entrance to where they had decided to sleep. He kept his gun in hand and his eyes and ears alert.

"Hey, Nate?" He grunted in response. "Remember the word games we used to play as kids?" She smiled up at the ceiling and looked over to her older brother.

"Which ones?" He looked to her, an eyebrow raised in curiosity as to where she was going with this.

"Apple." She shot him a childish grin and he let out a small laugh and came back with 'elephant'.

Olivia thought for a second before saying tree, and Nate replied immediately with egg which led Olivia to come up with the word grass.

"Silver Shroud." Nate was smiling, remembering the fond memories of the game that he and his sister always referred to as the 'Apple game'.

"You lose! No names, and that was _two_ words!" She giggled, she was never the one to win since Nates vocabulary was always larger than hers.

"If you could be any superhero, which one would you want to be?" He fully embraced the childish nature of their conversation but decided to ignore his loss.

"I'd rather just have my own super power and be done with it; I don't want to be some hero." She shrugged, biting her lip.

"Yeah," Nate chuckled. "I used to want to be the Silver Shroud, but now I think I'd settle for being bullet proof."

"Oh that's a good one!" She laughed. "Or rad proof."

"Just become a ghoul." MacCready interrupted.

"Yeah, but that's no fun Creads. That isn't a superpower then, it's a mutation," She looked up to where MacCready was lying down on the bench. "What types of games did you play as a kid?"

"We didn't play much, but we would have contests coming up with insults for Mungo's," He chuckled, remembering fond memories. "'I was the best."

"Of course you were," Olivia rolled her eyes and grinned while picking some dried blood and dirt off of her finger nails. "What's a.. mungo?"

"It's a word we used for adults," He smiled under his hat, making it shift slightly. "I lived in a place where it was only children. No adults allowed - we couldn't trust them - and when you turned 16 you were out."

"Sounds rough." She gave up on her task and looked back to Nate.

"If you don't go to sleep soon, I'm going to take your place and you can keep watch." Nate frowned at her, looking tired.

"Fine, fine," She decided to lie down on the floor beside MacCready's bench. "Don't you dare fall asleep on us Nathan."

He let out a quiet laugh. "Never again."

* * *

A/N:

Thank you mr/ms Anon person!

I'm sorry for so many short chapters! I'm trying to make them longer, haha.


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